Day 220: Resolving Issues

Should be Day 228.  This is a continuation of Day 130: Three Monsters.

     The time had come.  Smotch had been lying in bed thinking about it for most of the night.  Not even the snoring of his neighbor in the house underneath him could lull him to sleep.  At Grindle's house, all the three had done was grunt responses or vain comments.  Smotch didn't even see a need for him to be there.  he had a feeling he knew what was troubling them, but he wasn't sure how to fix it.

     Smotch nearly rolled out of bed when his phone rang.

     "Hello?"

     "Smotch, it's Grindle.  I need you to come over right now.  The house alarm from my new security went off, and Jekko is in one of my traps."

     "He is?!  I'll be right over."  Smotch looked at the clock.  3:28.  This was going to be an odd night.
   
     When Smotch drove into the driveway, half of the downstairs lights were on, sticking out starkly from the rest of the black at the top of the hill.  Smotch made sure his vehicle was in "park" and stepped out.  Grindle must have been watching from the window because he immediately came out.

     "I'm so glad you've come!  He's here in the living room."

     Smotch heard grunts and creaking from a rope against a hook, and he assumed that Jekko must have been trying relentlessly for the past twenty minutes to get out.  The red bagged monsters swayed like a chandelier.

     "Grindle, let's just talk about this!  Let me ou- Smotch!  It's you.  Please tell Grindle to let me down, so I can clear up this mess."

     "So you didn't come to rob me?" Grindle coarsely asked.

     "Well, I..." his voice trailed.

      "I thought not.  See what I mean, Smotch?  Guilty!  What will I do?"

     Smotch scratched his head.  "I saw cut him down.  We can always chase him if worse comes to worse."

     He nodded, and Jekko came down with a thud after Grindle cut the rope with his claws.  Jekko rubbed his short tail and stared sullenly.

     "Why, why would you do it, Jekko?"

     His eyes shifted to the open curio cabinet where a few figurines had been pushed to the side.  His sack was lying on the floor in front of it, three valuable knick-knacks already shoved in. "You have so much stuff I didn't think you'd miss it.  It's not like you'd give it to me if I asked."

     "You're right; I wouldn't.  They're mine, and very special to me."
   
     "Are you in trouble?" Smotch asked, trying to be neutral.

     "No."

     Grindle growled, "Then I don't understand!"

     "Think!" Jekko replied.  "Would you be ablke to contain yourself if you saw all sorts of wonderful things that you'd almost kill to have but never are aloud to look at  them funny, and the owner keeps getting dozens by the week?  It's enough to make a monster go human!"

     Smotch said in a subdued tone, "I do think you have too much stuff, Grindle."

     "I don't!"

     "Look around you."

     He stared at his vast array of knick knacks on every available shelf.  He had built more directly on the wall to accommodate his growing collection, and there was hardly any shelf room visible on those that were filled.

     "You don't even have enough room for it all.  Face it, you have a problem."

     Grindle was silent.

     "What kind of friends are we?" Smotch continued.  "When was the last time we all laughed and actually had something fun to do?" 

     "A while," Jekko replied.

     "Grindle, when did ever leave your house?  And Jekko, if you worked instead of being lazy, you could afford to buy some of these do-dads for yourself."  He paused before adding, "If we can't change, then I might need to find some other place to hang  for a while."

     Grindle sighed.  "You're right.  I need help."

     "Me too."

     "That's what friends are for," Smotch smiled. 

Day 213: The Gentle Monster

This is part of a mini series I'm doing where I write a story based on a picture I have favorited on deviantART.  This particular one happens to coincide with my land of Nog. 

     In the land of Nog, monsters are taught that humans are to be feared, never trusted, and avoided at all costs.  If you do come in contact with one, the best course of action is to scare them.  Any monster who doesn't follow these rules is either stupid or soft.  From the time he was a monsterling, Blindle was thought to fit such a description.  His mother lived in denial of this fact for years, but Blindle's father had resigned himself that he had a wimp for a son.  Blindle didn't like participating in the playful fights at school.  He'd rather chase butterflies or stare up at the clouds and guess at the shapes they made.  Blindle had few friends and even fewer once he became a full-grown monster.  He whistled while worked at the factory and came home at night to watch TV and eat pizza, a very habitual creature.

     One weekends, he liked to walk out to the bogs and philosophize about life and observe nature.  It was his favorite past time.  On one such excursion, he heard unusually light footsteps.  Blindle hid behind a tree, as he was frightened easily, and tried to stop from shaking as he saw the vines move before him. A young boy, a human boy, parted the vines with his white fingers.

"Whoah!  This place is so cool!"  He wandered around the bog, staring at the weird trees with eyes and mutant-looking bugs. 

Blindle watched the boy curiously.  This was his first human seen up close, and he wasn't afraid.  They didn't look like hideous, murderous beasts.  "Sure, he looks kinda bald, but that's no reason to shun him.  Oh no, he's near the sinking hole!"

Without leaving himself time for doubt, Blindle jumped out from his hiding spot and shouted to the boy, "Don't take another step or you'll sink!"

The lad looked up, terrified from hearing the deep gravelly voice, but he was also amazed at staring at such a lovable creature.  He stepped backward and asked, "Are you a monster?"

"Yes, I'm Blindle.  Are you a human?"

"Yeah," he stated incredulously.  "My name's Timmy.  So you're a real monster, with sharp fangs and everything?"

"Well, my fangs aren't as strong as some," Blindle blushed, "but I still can roar as ferociously as anyone else."

"Really?!  Let me see!"

Blindle was all too happy to oblige.

"Awesome!"

"Thanks!"  Blindle ambled a little closer.  "What's the human world like?"

Timmy and Blindle talked for an hour, exploring the bog together.  Before Timmy left, he promised he would visit Blindle again after school.  Timmy couldn't come every weekday, but he and Blindle met three times a week.  Blindle waited excitedly, rain or shine.  He was willing to risk spending time with Timmy, even though being caught with a human could get him in serious trouble.  Timmy rode on Blindle's back, they swam in the mire, swung through the trees, but their favorite game was hide and seek.  Timmy would pretend he was a brave explorer, and then Blindle would pretend he was the bold human searching for monsters.  It was great fun for both of them.

Day 206: In the Land of Nog

Some background on the land of Nog, first introduced in Day 130: Three Monsters.

Nog is quite different from any human town you are familiar with.  The makeup of the streets, the types of stores and restaurants there, and even the architecture are all different from a human's house.  In Nog, there are some houses that are constructed underground, kind of like an ant colony.  The living room and kitchen would be near the earth's surface behind the trap door, and the lower levels would have the bedrooms.  Poorer families live in duplex homes, ones that are literally built on top of each other.  The monsters improved the humans' apartment complex by building foundations strong enough to support entire houses on top of each other.  Only the rich can live in normal grand houses.  Nogians enjoy painting their buildings bright colors that match their fur, such as lemon yellow or turquoise.  A few brave souls like polka dots, but those are normally seen as the oddballs in the neighborhood.

Since Nog is such a small city, relatively speaking, for such a high monster population, the Nogians built spiral freeways that layer over each other in order to reduce traffic.  Some desperate roads even lead through buildings.  In Nog, the little monsters are required to attend two types of schools for a few hours at each every day, minus the weekends and brief vacations every other month.  The first school is for general knowledge in history, Magog (the monsters' official universal language), math, and science.  The second prepares young Nogians for adulthood through teaching them about career preferences, Nogian civics and government, and the dangers of the human world.  It goes without saying that monsters eat a different diet from humans, and restaurants cater to that, along with embracing take-out.

Day 130: Three Monsters

Jealousy~ Fearful or wary of being supplanted; apprehensive of losing affection or position.

    2.

       a. Resentful or bitter in rivalry; envious: jealous of the success of others.

       b. Inclined to suspect rivalry.

   3. Having to do with or arising from feelings of envy, apprehension, or bitterness: jealous thoughts.

 

In the land of Nog there lived a posse of monsters.  Grindle was a green furry monster with wiry fur and yellow fangs.  Jekko's fur was red, tinted gray from all the dirt he'd play around in, and he had two knobs on his head above his ears.  Smotch was lemony yellow with a long spiny tail.  Grindle's parents had died in a massacre caused by humans several years ago, leaving him with a substantial fortune.  Grindle used that money to buy himself a ginormous house with a huge yard, and he filled every room and drawer with the latest gadgets and exciting collectibles.  The two monsters loved coming over to Grindle's house to hang out, just so they could see his collections.  Grindle was protective over his possessions.  His nick-knacks were behind glass, he never let his friends touch them, and he was often surfing his laptop or phone for more things to add in his house.

 

 "Don't you think you have enough stuff?" Smotch would ask.

 

"No!  You can never have too much I say."

 

"I don't know about that."

 

Smotch and Jekko would meet up with Grindle every Tuesday and Friday evening to play cards, watch movies, or do something dangerous like visit a human's house.  Smotch tended to be the leader of their group, leading discussions, giving ideas for what they could do next, or merely talking to fill the air.  Grindle tended to be silent when he surfed, and Jekko didn't speak much because he was too busy staring at the objects in Grindle's house.

 

Jekko was a poor monster.  He barely finished school and tended to be lazy.  This combination equaled a job at minimal wage.  He couldn't afford much else besides necessities, and every time he was in Grindle's house, he became more upset that he couldn't own some of the nice things Grindle had too.  It's all he could think about, and the anger, discontent, and overall malaise that lingered in his heart only intensified when he was in Grindle's house.  

 

As time went on, the trio continued to hang out, but they were so disconnected and unhappy that their friendship was a shadow.  Something needed to be done to fix it.  For the time being, they ignored the problem.